My grandparents have some pretty good books up here. I'd sort of run out of literature back home. I still had Heart of Darkness and Obasan, but after that, nothing hard, really. I'm moving into Dostoyevsky right now, and I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding other interesting things to read during my stay.
There were some forest fires a ways away from here. Close enough to be news, but not close enough to be dangerous. I asked them if there had ever been a forest fire that was close enough to be a threat, and apparently, in the time they've lived up here, there had been only one fire that came close to being scary. But it was small and put down fast enough. Plus, it wasn't on the property, and it didn't even really sound all that near to it, when I got the description of where it was. Apparently, even with some of the further away ones, the scent of the fire can carry as far as to where we are. I'm not really concerned with fires.
Other than the fire, there was an even slighter threat of a tornado. I'm really used to tornado scares in Guelph. A tornado that wasn't large enough to be called a tornado dealt us the most severe damage. We called it the Gustnado, and it lifted the roof off my elementary school gymnasium, ripped a few trees out of the ground, and even threw one through my French teacher's office window.
We've also had a few full-scale tornadoes, which just seemed to walk down the street and disappear without giving anyone any real trouble. It's kind of funny how, even knowing that something is dangerous, if you live with it long enough and it doesn't do you any direct harm, you cease to feel the acidity that the threat still kind of deserves.
It was a bit like that with the tornado scare up here. I've been near enough to tornadoes now and then throughout my life that I wasn't too concerned. Made sense, because it wasn't a real scare, but still... I was a little startled at myself that I dismissed the notion of being struck before I had all the facts.
As far as animals go, I haven't seen too much as yet. There are finches and humming birds everywhere. Lots of chipmunks. I've seen cranes flying by. I saw a raccoon. Apparently a porcupine gnawed on a chair during the night. That would have been a little interesting, but I didn't get to see it. Lots of neat birdsong.
I've been taking lots of photos. I probably have a handful that have come out well. I'm waiting until I get back to publish them.
Driving's continuing along steadily. I made a major step up in skill yesterday.
I got a package from a friend of mine from CWY. One of the Canadians. It came to my home address, in Guelph, so now I'm going to have to wait until I get home or have it sent up here. It arrived the day after I left. Go figure.
I'm officially applied for residence at the college. I'm going to be the oldest guy there, I just know it. That'll be awkward, but hey, sometimes I thrive in situations that put me in the minority. That's the basic concept of cultural adaptation, and the main skill I've learned through Katimavik and CWY.
Still, y'know... If people go right after highschool, that makes them 17 or 18... And if college is two years on average, that makes an average spanning between 17 and 20. Of course, this college also does many three year programs, and even University degrees. It's known for that, actually. That helps, but still, University students might graduate at age 21, 22... Basically, they're finishing at the time when I'm starting.
I'm thinking about what my friends did after highschool. Among my eight closest friends, or my "group", there have been three college dropouts, three people who did not seek higher education, one person who graduated college, and one person who graduated university. Two dropouts joined the military, and one of them dropped out of that, too.
Of my two closest friends from middle school, one didn't seek higher education, and the other did an apprenticeship and was successful afterwards.
There was a graph at my highschool stating the different paths people take after graduation, and in what percentage. It was pretty even between college and university, both being 25% or something like that, and then there was like, 15% going into apprenticeships, and 35% going directly into the workforce. I guess nothing's going to knock me out of the "direct to workforce" category at this point, although even giving me that title is being charitable.
I catch myself running over thoughts like these. I can't distract myself from the urge to size myself up in terms of what's to come.
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I think doing something other than going from high school directly into the next level of school is much more common these days than, well, when I was that age. Not just because of the economy (and down here, the higher cost of college), but also because there are a lot more things to do, and because more people are realizing that just like it's OK to have had several jobs (where in the old days, employers looked at you funny, I guess, if you moved from job to job), it's OK to take some time before you move on.
ReplyDeleteAnd you did some pretty cool stuff, too. You might be thinking about how you're older than other people there, but some of them will be thinking about how this is the furthest they've ever been from home.
You know, Patrick just got his degree from Harvard in 2010, and he's significantly older than you ... he might have some insight as to how it felt to be older than some (most?) classmates. My best friend is in vet school now - she's Patrick's age, and she had some of the same concerns about being in school with people 10 years younger than her. She made friends with them pretty quickly, though, because they had an important thing in common - being in school together.